a show before him. it's "way too rly" for this. good morning. this is "way too early." our super it pac is used to pay harness racing debts. shoot me an e-mail and tell me why you're up this early. let me know what you're doing up at this hour. or you can do what jason does and text the word awake followed by your response to 622639. we'll read the best responses later in the show. jason is a big texter. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session nor friday, january 13th. a lot going on today including the revelation of documents in 2006, meetings of the federal reserve that look haunting to day as the coming housing crisis was down played completely.

have you heard of tim tebowy? jimmy fallon introduces us later in the show. let's get to the news live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city. a full day of campaigning planned today in south carolina. republican candidates work to win over voters. the superpac supporting them fight it in and out a proxy war of negative ads. mitt romney is the top target. he swept the first two contests in iowa and new hampshire. now he's trying to fend off attacks again over his work at a private equity firm which critics say led to thousands of americans losing their jobs. >> i think any time a job is lost is a tragedy for the family, for the individual that loses the job. it's just devastating. and every time that we invest in a business, it was to try to encourage that business to have on going life. the idea of making a short term profit actually doesn't really exist in business because no one wants to buy something or buy

stock in a company that's going to be a short term success. you want it to be long term. >> with that focus on jobs, romney is trying to pivot the attention from his record and toward the man he hopes whose job he hopes to take next november. >> he's been president for three years. what's his jobs plan? what's his program to get america back to work? i have my plan. they're very critical of my plan, of course. he doesn't have one. so come up with your own, mr. president. isn't it about time? three years into your presidency with all these people out of work that you come up with a plan? >> front-runner may be holding his fire against fellow republicans. but his deep pocketed supporters are not. that's the way it works nowadays. the superpac restore our future has a new ad up in south carolina and florida that takes aim at newt gingrich who is leading the charge against romney's record as a businessman. >> newt gingrich's attacks are called foolish, out of bounds, and disgusting. newt attacks because he has more baggage than the airlines. newt was fined $300,000 for

ethics violations, took $1.6 million from freddie mac and co-sponsored a bill with nancy pelosi that would have gich $60 million a year to a u.n. program supporting china's brutal one child policy. don't be fooled by newt's desperate attacks. restore our future is responsible for the content of this message. >> so that's restore our future. the pac that supports mitt romney. along with gingrich, rick perry feeling the backlash after calling romney a vulture capitalist. ironically, their attacks may be helping romney to lock up support from the conservative establishment which now has up until now has been hesitant to rally around romney. they're circling the wagons today. the president of the chamber of commerce says he is disappointed with the carrying on within the republican party. top republican donor barry wynn compared it to finger nails on the chalk board. wynn is now band onning the texas governor to throw his

weight behind mitt romney as well. it's a big hit for the texas governor who is trying to reframe the issue as a critique against washington. >> listen, i love capitalists, free market capitalism in the state of texas has created over a million jobs. we understand how capitalism needs to work. but this corrupt and fraudulent activity that's been going on in washington, d.c. between them and wall street has to stop. and we have to have a president that will stand up and say we're going to put the regulators in place that actually do the job. >> and gingrich is finding new ways to go after mitt romney. he, in fact, dipped into the archives to pull out a new line of attack. >> what has massachusetts given us? a liberal governor who wanted us to believe he is strong on defense. a liberal senator who wanted us to believe he was a man of the people. and a massachusetts moderate who runs away from ronald reagan. >> look, i was an independent during the time of reagan-bush. i'm not trying to return to

reagan-bush. >> romney donated to democrats and given a chance to vote republicans or democrats, he chose the democrats. but now he tells us, trust me, i'm conservative. massachusetts moderate mitt romney will say anything to win -- anything. and just like john kerry. he speaks french, too. [ speaking french ] >> but he is still a massachusetts moderate and a massachusetts moderate cannot beat barack obama. >> and worst of all, he speaks french. imagine that. we'll have much more on "morning joe" at the top of the hour. the fight for hearts and minds in afghanistan suffered a big setback as a shocking image of the united states marines on the battlefield is now viewed around the world. nbc's chief pentagon correspondent jim jim miklaszew has details.

>> reporter: marines urinating on the bodies of three dead militants. they can be heard joking about their antics at one point. the marines were part of a sniper team deployed to afghanistan. they returned home to camp lejeune last september where today two of them are being questioned by naval investigators. within hours after the video surfaced came an avalanche of condemnations from top ranking pentagon and military officials. at the state department today, secretary of state hillary clinton called the video deplorable. >> it is absolutely inconsistent with american values, with the standards of behavior that we expect from our military personnel. >> reporter: there's deep concern this video could create a serious backlash against the u.s. military in afghanistan. president karzai called it an insane act and demanded those involved be severely punished. this afghan fears that the marines' actions could undermine

any u.s. peace efforts and "increase the misery" in our country. the enemy gets a vote here, too. they have already seen them react about statements about how offended they are and how they may lash out. >> reporter: but how in a military unit is disciplined as the marines could this happen? >> these people are in day to day brutal combat. they're young. they turn into animals if you're not careful. >> jim miklaszewski reporting for us. u.s. tensions with iran appear to be heightening with american officials now turning to secret communications to directly warn iran's supreme leader against any actions that could provoke a conflict. "the new york times" reporting that the rare contact between the two countries centers on

iranian threat to shut down the straight of hermuz. that is a red line that will not be tolerated and will be met with military force. one fifth of the world's oil passes through the straight every day. the u.s. also taking a closer look at iran's naval capability days after tehran carried out war games including the test launch of several missiles. iran is not interested in triggering conflict. a single rogue officer within the powerful revolutionary guard has the capability to spark a much deeper crisis. newly revealed transports from a federal reserve immediating in 2006 are providing a surprising behind-the-scenes look at how the nation's top economic minds handled the mortgage market during the eermy staarly stages recession. it is not pretty. 1200 page suggest officials ignoring warnings from fed governors that the housing bubbling w

bubble was about to burst. fed chairman ben bernanke reportedly said, "so far we're seeing, at worst, an orderly decline in the housing market." then president of the federal reserve bank tim geithner said "the we think the fundmeamental of expansion going forward still look good." they believe at the time inflation was the greatest danger to the united states' economy and not the housing market. let's take an early look at the markets. jeff cutmore live in london for us. good morning. >> hey, good morning to you. and of the transcripts are fascinating. they show how much bernanke and others underestimated the consequences for the globe financially from the slowdown in the u.s. housing market. i'll tell you why the transcripts are important and why people are seizing on them right snou because they want to know how it shaped fed thinking going forward and just why

bernanke so keen to make qe-2 and possibly qe-3 happen here later this year to stop the u.s. economy sliding away from its recent growth. so fascinating reading. tells us a lot about fed thinking right now. the markets today, they're trading higher. we have europe positive for the moment. mixed picture as far as it come to the u.s. session. but we do have numbers out of j.p. morgan around lunch time. that's going to be fascinating because we want to know how these u.s. banks are going to report. record numbers expected from j.p. morgan. back to you. >> all right. jeff, thanks so much. yeah, the fed minutes are a good read. you can read them in the walt journal.com. still ahead on "way too early", jimmy fallon adds fuel to the tebow mania fire. he has a character named tebowy. you really to see this one.

plus, steef plus, stephen colbert makes good on his commitment to run for president. when i inspect homes, i can't be in an allergy fog.

so i get claritin clear for strong, non-drowsy relief of all my allergies like dust mold pets and pollen. looks good. thanks. i live claritin clear.

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and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ '80s dance music plays ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. 5:44 in the morning with this beautiful live picture of the empire state building. what are those colors you ask? today is the 60th anniversary of the "today" show. 60 years. can you believe it? congratulations to our friends across the street. let's get a check on weather now from nbc meteorologist bill

karins. bill, how's the voice? >> we're okay. we're making slow progress. >> i don't think you should make any progress at all. i think we found something here. this is your brand. >> just let it go. >> let it go. yes. >> the guy with the voice that doesn't match with the way he looks. good morning, everyone. winter is returning in a big way to many areas. yesterday did it in chicago with five inches of snow. now get ready in areas like boston, hartford, providence, new york, philly and d.c. the cold air is on its way. the snow is still flying this morning in areas of western new york. probably school delays for kids there. and then in michigan, we still have snow, too. then there is snow squalls throughout the entire valley. no snow for the big cities of the east. we have rain showers that moved through philly. they'll head to new york city shortly. after that blows through, the winds will really crank up. and the temperatures will plummet during the day. don't be fooled by how mild it is out there this morning. 23 in pittsburgh today. the wind chill is 4 right now. that cold air his to the east. we actually see a pretty nice

warmup in the middle of the country. it will be a very cold weekend up there in new england. it looks like the west coast, one of the areas that we could see snow, our friends in seattle could get a couple snowflakes on sunday. >> what did you say, peter brady? >> yeah. >> cold air is moving in. we'll enjoy this last day. bill, thanks so much. let's turn to sports. after a week of tebow mania, tim tebow and the broncos finally play a game tomorrow night against the patriots. it's a game that could be more watched than the match finale. he was voted america's new favorite athlete sat down with usa today for an interview in a glowing profile tebow reveals a modest lifestyle saying he stays focused on faith and family. he's too busy for a girlfriend. still, he's got plenty of fans including, how about this, 1980s hit maker john parr. he rewritten his song "st. elmo's fire" for the denver quarterback. the new name of the song, tim

tebow's fire. >>. ♪ tim tebow's fire >> that's right. he rewrote the song with no sense of irony whatsoever to be "tim tebow's fire." in honor of parr's tribute, jimmy fallon offered this performance last night inspired by tim tebow and david bowie. ♪ tim tebow to jesus christ tim tebow to jesus christ ♪ ♪ can't win by myself but with your help i might ♪ ♪ this is jesus christ to tim tebow ♪ ♪ please leave me alone force tors don't you know my day of rest is sunday ♪ ♪ and i'm sick of watching all

these broncos games ♪ ♪ i hear that you play new england next week ♪ ♪ do it on your own brady is too good and i've got better things to do ♪ ♪ tim tebow to jesus christ the broncos are still alive ♪ ♪ come on, everyone, tebow ♪ come on, everyone tebow come on, everyone, tebow ♪ >> closing with a big tebow. he says i'm sick of watching all these brofrp yoncos games. the afc, broncos-patriots. texans and ravens and then giants and packers play sunday

at 4:30 at lambeau field. at the top of the hour on "morning joe," mitt romney weathered the bane capital attacks with a lot of help from his conservative friends and, of course, from his superpac. we'll hear the front-runner's defense in a few minutes. when we come back here, we'll huddle up around the water cooler and watch stephen colbert getting 5% of vote without being in the race and now throwing his hat in the ring. "way too early" coming right back. new starbucks blonde roast is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new, but blonde roast is something new. something subtle.

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after locking up a close win in iowa and in new hampshire, mitt romney is looking to go three for three in south carolina a week from tomorrow. if history guides us, a romney victory will be a hard thing for his rivals to overcome. you want to sound smart tell your friends south carolina primary voters have chosen the eventual republican nominee in every contest since 1980. 2008 senator john mccain won 33% of the vote followed by mike huckabee, fred thompson and mitt romney. enough of the real news. let's watch stephen colbert's

big announcement last night. newt gingrich and mitt romney have been going out of their way to remind us they have no contact with or control over the superpacs that are run by friends and donors to destroy their opponents. here's romney a couple weeks ago on "morning joe." >> superpacs have to be separate from a campaign and candidate. i'm not allowed to communicate with them in any way, shape or form. if we coordinate in any way whatsoever, we go to the big house. >> go to the big house. so if stephen colbert did plan to run for president, he would have to give up his superpac to someone he doesn't have any control over. here is the big news from last night's show. >> you can't have the pac. you could have it run by somebody else. >> wait. what? what? someone else can take it over? i think there may be a guy.

john? john stewart, everybody! john, let me ask you something. are you here to offer to take over colbert superpac. i won't offer. i'm honored. i will be honored. >> all right, john. prepare yourself. here we go. >> trevor, if you will -- >> colbert superpac transfer activate. aaahhh! colbert superpac is dead. >> but it has been reborn as the definitely not coordinating with stephen colbert super pac! >> well now that that's all cleared up, nation, i have a major announcement to make. for over a day now the people of

south carolina have been crying out for someone who can restore our nation's former greatness to its current perfection. well, america, that someone is now. i'm proud to announce that i am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the united states of south carolina! i'm doing it! whoo! >> stephen colbert in south carolina says he might become a write in candidate for the primaries next saturday. of course, this stems off a poll that is in question that showed him with 5% of the vote. he wasn't even in the race. one point ahead of jon huntsman. colbert jumping in. still ahead, why are you awake? your friday the 13th themed tweets and texts are next and "morning joe" is now just moments away. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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u.s. sends top iran leader warning on the threat. that's the story we told you about at the top of the show. the administration signalled to iran's supreme leader that closing the strait of hormuz is a red line that would provoke a response. more on that coming up on "morning joe." if you want to put in a request for music, go to @morningmusic. we asked you at the top of the show what you're doing up at this hour. john tower had a couple answers. >> i got a christy from peoria. up thinking willy will make a snappy sidekick as vp to colbert's candidacy. >> if it gets me off the 5:30 a.m. shift, i'll do it. just kidding. what else do you got? >> tom in raleigh, north carolina. i'm up because 5:00 a.m. the truck that empties the metal